Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 07:45:25 +0000
From: Clare Howell
Subject: IYF19
MEDIA ADVISORY - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Editor: Clare Howell, clare@gpac.org
. MEDIA WATCH:
- NY PAPERS COVER TRANS-MURDER IN GREENWICH
VILLAGE
- 'FOCUS ON THE FAMILY' TRASHES TRANSGENDER
PARENT
NY PAPERS COVER TRANS-MURDER IN GREENWICH
VILLAGE
=========================================
[New York, NY: 22 Aug 98] FITZROY GREEN, 36,
was found murdered in his Greenwich Village
apartment last Tuesday morning having been
stabbed numerous times. A suspect, Eric
Carolina, 21, was arrested and charged with
2nd degree murder in the slaying.
Friends say that Green, a Jamaica native,
was a cross-dresser who engaged in sex work.
Police say the killing resulted when Mr.
Carolina accompanied the victim to Green's
apartment for sex and became enraged upon
discovering Green's male genitals. Police
have not classified the murder as a gay-bias
crime.
This account of the murder comes from the
New York Times. It's straightforward, factual
reporting. The New York Post presented the
crime in garish fashion. It described the
victim as a "'Sadomasochism master' and cross-
dressing prostitute" who had "turned his tiny
Greenwich Village studio into a sleaze
emporium."
The Daily News' story was headlined, "Victim
Led Two Lives." It recounts the "seamy details
of a double life," and labeled Green a
"prostitute specializing in sadomasochism."
The subtext of the tabloids', especially the
Post's, coverage of crimes involving members of
a sexual minority is that the victims are
responsible for the violence done to them.
It is still permissible in the mainstream media
to portray transgender people and sexual minorities
(i.e., S/M enthusiasts) with open disdain,
ridiculing them in cartoons and dismissing their
experience using demeaning stereotypes.
"Once you could do this to blacks and
other minorities, and women, and people with
disabilities; but, the standards of public
discourse have evolved past that," said Riki
Wilchins, Executive Director of GenderPAC.
"Now they're left with us to ridicule with
impunity. Gender has become the new socially
acceptable form of prejudice."
###
'FOCUS ON THE FAMILY' TRASHES TRANSGENDER
PARENT
=========================================
[New York, NY: 23 Aug 98] IN THE THE AUGUST
issue of 'Focus on the Family' magazine, an
article titled 'Defending the Family in the
Public Square' begins,
"The Christian mother of two young boys
divorces her husband after he undergoes
a sex-change operation and moves in with
another surgically altered man. The former
husband demands visitatioin rights with his
sons; the woman goes to court to stop him.
She wins custody, but a judge says the
father, who has renamed himself Susan, can
have lengthy, unsupervised, face-to-face
visits.
"Sound outrageous?"
The article then details how the
Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) fought and won in
court to have the deviant, Susan, kept away
from her children. The ADF was founded by
"Christian" ministries to contest homosexual
adoption and custody cases.
They offer intensive training in custody
and family law to attorneys who volunteer to
defend "religious liberty, the sanctity of
human life, parental rights and the traditional
family."
The article closes with a plea to "God's
people" for donations and lawyers to help
defend the traditional family.
###
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